DVD

As the 18th century dawned on the North American continent, four powers - the French, the Spanish, the British and the Native Americans were competing to see who would control this remarkable land. However, after half a century of almost continuous wars, a new entity emerged: The Americans.

Combines original color footage with compelling passages from diaries and letters from soldiers, leaders, and the homefront during World War II. Topics cover all aspects of the war including battles, internment of Japanese Americans, African-American soldiers, women in the military and on the homefront, war in the Pacific, an the concentration camps.

Acceptance of Hawaii as our fiftieth state. Includes a look at the formation of the first 13 colonies, the French and Indian War, The Revolutionary War, The Louisiana Purchase, Florida and the Seminole Indians, The Westward Movement, The Mexican-American War, The California Gold Rush, Manifest Destiny, Oregon Territory, Alaska Purchase, and Hawaii.

Discover why thousands of Americans left their homes in the East to endure months of hardship to settle in the West. Describes life on a wagon train. Learn about the special challenges of the trip, as well as the day-to-day routine, via re-enactments of the entire trip between Missouri and the West Coast.

This compelling program reveals how the interests of the industrial North and the agricultural South (the Cotton Belt) came to clash over critical issues such as plantation slavery, and how these issues eventually led to the secession of the southern states.

Program 1: Settling the New World and the Founding of the United States of America - Includes: 1619-1621 - Blacks Arrive in Jamestown; 1705- The Virginia General Assembly Passes the Slave Codes; 1762- Entrepreneur Samuel Frances Opens New York City's Frances Tavern; 1770 - Crispus Attacks the Black Patriots.

Program 3: The Fight For Freedom, includes: 1851 - Sojourner Truth Delivers "Ain't I a Woman?" Speech; 1854 - First Black university founded - Lincoln University; 1855 - Frederick Douglas publishes "My Bondage and My Freedom"; 1857 - Dred Scott decision helps trigger the Civil War; 1863 - Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation; 1863 - Black Regiment Storms Fort Wagner in the Civil War; 18

Program 5: The Foundation For Equality - includes: 1904- Scott Joplin and Ma Rainey initiate the merger of two cultures; 1909 - Matthew Henson Discovers the North Pole; 1909- W.E.B. DuBois founds the NAACP; 1924 - George Washington Carver - Renaissance Man; 1925 - Alain Locke leads Harlem Renaissance; 1926 - Satchel Paige stars in the National Negro Baseball League.

Program 7: Civil Rights - Ralph Bunche wins the Nobel Peace Prize; Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first black recipient of the Pulitzer Prize; Brown v.

The final volume of the series takes viewers through the Civil War, the Reconstruction and beyond as it follows the life of Robert Smalls. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves under the control of the Confederate government. Once the South was defeated in 1865, the nation adopted the 13th Amendment, effectively ending slavery.

Based on the traditional American folksong, this compelling tale recounts the daring adventures of one family's escape from slavery via the Underground Railroad. This touching story captures all the drama of a perilous flight to freedom.

Features the first four of ten documentaries on major events in American history and includes the Pequot War, Shay's Rebellion, the California gold rush, and the Battle of Antietam

Features three of ten documentaries on major events in American history and includes the Homestead Strike, the assassination of William McKinley and the Scopes trial

Features three of ten documentaries on major events in American history and includes Einstein's letter to President Roosevelt warning that Germany may develop an atomic bomb, Elvis Presley's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi

Part I: The War in Europe: Uses archival footage to look at the roots of the war in Europe; the weapons of war including chemical warfare, air planes, and submarines; the United States enters the war; Support of the war including industrial production, rationing, government price controls, propaganda, and taxes and bonds.